Reviews - The Blackhouse | The StoryGraph

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585 reviews for:

The Blackhouse

Peter May

3.92 AVERAGE

mariandy's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional tense medium-paced

amy614's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

aprouzeau's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

dpksmith's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lmcn's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

jackiedreadsbooks's review against another edition

1.25

slow-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

More about a life of trauma (oodles worth, like a literally not believable amount) than about a murder even though it's sold as a murder mystery, a crime thriller. The murder is basically just a catalyst

both in and out of story

to get into the trauma. I didn't come for a book about trauma. The murder becomes an afterthought for most of the book.

It stretched my suspension of disbelief to a breaking point, often. You don't get a bad concussion and forget

an entire decade of sexual abuse.

That's not how trauma works, or memory, or human brains, or PTSD. There is no clear explanation for the murder. Yeah, yeah, I know it was supposed to be

to get Fin to come back to the island for this convoluted master plan bwa ha ha

but the murderer was canonically not a super intelligent person, which was shown over and over again through all the flashbacks, and constantly drunk. Not the master plan making type. Is talked out of it with one super short conversation that was obvious trickery. The motive was half-baked. The execution so flat. To kill someone for no other reason than "he was an asshole we all hated him" is just... it's not good enough. At all.

Every single character was completely unlikeable if not loathsome (Gunn and Gigs not withstanding,) and all of them lacked dimension. It was also really sexist. I never figured out what about Fin was so fantastic that any woman would chase after him her whole life while he was unbelievably and intentionally cruel to her. They didn't waste one word on that conundrum. There is also the girl who

cried rape

which I loathe but also a lot of "well boys will be boys" moments. Eyeroll.

I liked his descriptions of Scotland and the general writing caliber was good. That's about it. Glad I got it at the library. Don't know why it's so highly rated and can't figure out how I made it all the way through.

oorcait's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

tripchocdubs's review against another edition

1.5

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

bluerobyn123's review against another edition

3.0

This is a title where the setting--bleak and remote--is treated like another character in that it significantly shapes the plot and character motivations. There is a lot of the atmospheric descriptions, which can get a bit tedious at times, when you're just waiting for the plot and mystery to move forward. The narrative also draws on a well-worn stereotype of the emotional wounded cop, this one hurting because of the death of his son and failed marriage. His need to gain emotional control manifests itself in his place in the investigation.

The one significant piece about this novel that troubles me is that seems to be the first in an eventual series, all focused around this remote northern Scottish island locale. At some point, however, can one believably have multiple mysteries and murders in the same remote location. But I leave that to the author to discern and figure out.

rhibeetle17's review against another edition

1.75

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

It’s misogynist. Every female character is judged on their attractiveness, commentary on their underwear, a rape victim is disbelieved immediately before any evidence is examined, just everyone knows that ‘she’s lying’ instantly. In one disgusting scene where young lads are perving on a woman in the bath, it’s written that ‘she cried rape, but that was just wishful thinking.’

I don’t know how no-one else has picked up on this, this book has not aged well, women are either sex objects or just 1-dimensional characters. Also the ending is ridiculous and absurd- why would you spend 10 hours against all odds to rescue someone imminently and then ‘oh I’ll just sit down and have a cuppa’ then go to sleep! It’s ridiculous.

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